The One That I Want (Scorned Women Society Book 3) Piper Sheldon (classic books for 12 year olds .TXT) 📖

I’d eaten that day. Guilt swirled with helpless anger. Roxy was still front and center in my thoughts which then only made me feel guiltier and angrier about everything back home. I needed to get it together. I couldn’t let it own me. Hadn’t I just said that to Roxy? Don’t let things weigh you down, leave all the heavy shit behind. Just as I was rinsing out my mouth, there was a knock at my door.

“Sanders?” Skip’s voice asked through the door.

I sniffed, rubbed at my eyes, and opened the door. “Skippo, what’s up, mate?”

“Are you okay?” He looked behind me and I wondered if he’d heard all that.

“All good, yeah. Come on in. What’s up?”

“Just wanted to see if you wanted to grab some dinner.” His eyes shot to the roll of Tums on my bedside table. “Are you sick?”

I had to shut this down before concerned Skip took charge, so I quickly changed the subject. “I showed Roxy my tattoo today.”

“Showed her?” He shook his head. “Actually, I don’t want to know.” Skip scratched at his beard. It was getting down right shaggy if you asked me. He liked it that way. He liked to push people away with his scary mountain-man look. Another thing he and Roxy had in common: trying to scare people off.

He moved to sit down on the edge of my bed. I hovered in the corner. He was winding up for a Skip lecture but I couldn’t take it right now. I gnawed on the dry cuticle of my thumb and my leg jumped, shaking the floor.

Skip held my gaze before looking out the window for a minute. He surprised me when he finally spoke. “Remember that time your dad took us camping and we got lost?”

I hadn’t fooled him. Somehow he always knew exactly where my head was at. Another thing he shared with Roxy. I laughed with effort. “Oh hell. That trip was brutal.”

“How old were we, thirteen? Fourteen?”

“I can’t remember but we definitely became men that trip,” I said.

He chuckled softly. “Remember when I hit my head and he acted like it was totally normal?”

“The blood was everywhere.” I shook my head. “I’d never seen anything like it. It was like a scary movie.”

“He said, ‘Ah, you’re fine. Head wounds bleed.’ But then I ended up needing six staples.” His hand reached for the back of his head where his mangy hair covered a three-inch scar.

“And you turned out just fine,” I said.

“Your dad saved my life,” Skip said quietly, not quite meeting my gaze.

“Okay, now who’s dramatic? You would have been—”

“I mean before that. Your dad took me in. He fed me and raised me as his own. He saved me. I have no idea where I’d be if not for him.”

My Adam’s apple sat so high in my throat I had trouble swallowing. “Yeah,” I said.

“He was the greatest man I ever knew.”

I nodded.

He went on, “But it’s okay to not be okay yet—”

“I know, mate. Thanks.” I held up my hand. If he even said another word, I wouldn’t be able to hold it together. The last thing I ever wanted to do was break down in front of Skip. He’d known a real shit life and he never burdened others with it. He was a fucking hero. I wasn’t about to make him feel worse.

He couldn’t understand how angry I was and how that anger made me feel like the most selfish bastard on the planet. How the regret of how I handled those last months burned through my body all the time. Sometimes the overwhelming magnitude of it all hit me. I couldn’t fathom how I was supposed to handle it. What was I even doing here? It was bad enough that I was away from home and the business. It was bad enough that I was hurting a decent person like Roxy. And I had dragged Skip into all this. I needed to focus on the business. That was why I was here. Forget everything else I felt. None of that mattered. The business mattered.

Skip asked, “Today went well? With Roxy?”

I was grateful for the subject change. “Yeah.” I wanted to tell him about the staring and the sharing, but I knew it wouldn’t come across like I meant. “We’re meeting tomorrow to go over plans for MooreTek. I think she’s finally keen to work with me.”

“Good. Glad to hear it. And you’re good too? Working with her?”

“Oh yeah. All that other stuff is behind me. We’re just business associates.”

He held my gaze a second too long and I didn’t think he was buying it at all. “Want me to take over? Need to head back?”

My heart skipped. My palms instantly started to sweat. I should tell him yes. I should let him take over and so I could go home to take care of the shit I messed up. Wrap up Dad’s estate and move on from Green Valley and Roxy Kincaid. Skip was more than capable of conducting our business here.

“Thanks for the offer, mate,” I said. “But I’m really just starting to make progress with her. I think it might be a dick move professionally if I pass her off now, you know?”

“I know the team would like to hear from you. They’re really understanding of what happened. But you should maybe explain what happened at the conference. They’d understand.”

This was as close to scolding me as Skip would get. I could see he was as uncomfortable with it as I was. He wouldn’t quite hold my gaze as he rubbed his beard.

“I’ll talk to them. As soon as I get back. I just don’t want to return until I have awesome news. If I can do great with this client, I’m hoping the Lodge will want to do an exclusivity contract with us for all their corporate groups. Or any groups really. We could do wedding parties. Girls’ trips. Those are big too. Communication and vulnerability are good for